[April 19, 2021]
I’ve been inactive for the past few days cause I’m trying to change the OS of my laptop, and a super typhoon just hit and the electricity is out. I’m just glad the winds weren’t that strong and there wasn’t a storm surge. Typhoons bring bad memories.
Once my OS is all set up, I’ll start working. For now, just some old pics of me lounging in a cafe and getting some work done.
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23.02.21 | Our neighbors’ cat is starting to get cozy. Today, I had a very productive co-studying session with @small-french-studyblr and since the professor excluded most of the course, I’m almost back on track! I hope that doesn’t mean the exam will be super weird xD
((Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros))
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IBDP exam prep in pandemic times: Survival tips
It’s that time of the year again: another IB exam session! Except there’s still a pandemic raging across the globe, and some countries are still holding exams. As a N20 graduate who sat exams and did pretty well (40+), I thought it might be helpful for the upcoming May kids to share some study strategies I found useful. :)
If you do a coursework based subject (e.g. Visual Arts), get that work completed as soon as possible. Although there have been adjustments made to the M21 papers and less content is on the exam, you still want to maximise your revision time. The last thing you want is for that time to be taken up by a load of coursework to be done. The goal is to get more time for grinding past papers.
Speaking of past papers, the grind is key. There are many past paper resources online; make good use of them. Practice is the most trustworthy way to get better at something.
When marking papers, keep track of your mistakes - is there a pattern? Perhaps a topic you’re particularly bad at? Identify your mistakes and do deliberate topical practice to strengthen your skills. I also liked to negative mark myself (deduct the maximum possible amount of marks for a mistake); this way, I would make sure that I did not forget the mistake (even if it was just a silly one).
Making plans for a revision session is great, but make sure your aims are specific. Don’t write “study for Physics”, try something like “Topic 5 practice” or “do M19 past papers”. This can boost your motivation in two ways:
With specificity, you have an actionable goal and makes it easier to know what to do.
Finishing the revision for one topic/doing a set of past papers is much easier than the vague target of studying for a subject (you won’t know when is the finish point). As such, you’ll get some dopamine from completing your set task.
TAKE REGULAR BREAKS. Your schoolwork may be important but your physical and mental health is the most important. If you feel a burnout approaching, take some time off for yourself. Do something fun and relaxing for a while (reading, exercise, watch some fun cat YouTube videos, whatever); allow your brain to recharge. Remember, taking breaks is NOT wasting time, it can actually help boost your productivity. (I’m very grateful for Genshin Impact pulling me through exam period.)
On this note, it’s also good to figure out how much work you can do until your brain stops functioning in a day. This way, you’ll know how many hours of work you can handle reasonably in a day. It’ll help you prevent burnouts and not overwork. We aren’t made to work forever, after all.
Hope this post can help ease the stress for some of you - studying during a pandemic is already hard enough, let alone exam preparations! All the best with your upcoming exams, you’ll smash them :) <3
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